For those of you have been following another thread about my cat, Maya...she had a funny reaction after her rabies vaccine (still don't know what it was) and didn't eat for sometime. She finally ate some canned food, and for the last week or so she's been mostly eating the Hill's A/D prescription canned food, since it's high calorie and high nutrition. She appears to have gotten her energy back, but now I have a new problem: I can't get her to eat her regular food.

I tried crunching some of her regular food (both she and Chaco eat Hill's Science Diet - Adult) and mixing it into part of the canned food today but she didn't touch that part.

Those of you have had experience "weaning" a cat from canned food back to their regular food, I'd love to hear your suggestions. It wouldn't be a problem...I don't care about the cost...but I have two cats and Chaco is a little chubbo. The last thing she needs is anything high-calorie, so right now I have to separate them during the day and whenever Maya eats. It's tough on both girls and their mommy <g> too.

The only thing I have eveb done is to do it gradually - when intorducing new fod - or going back to regular fiid. Give a little of the new stuff with the remainder if the food what s/he is eating currently and then reduce the current and increase the new, all over a say two week period. That has always worked for me - no tummy upsets or yowls of complaints and my Siamese has turned into somewhat of a fussy eater - of she does not like a flavour or food, she simply won;t eat till she gets what she wants. Fortunately, there is a lot she DOES like, lol

Hello, all...just wanted to let you know that Miss Maya is back on her normal food. I tried the gradual transition idea, because that was what I figured would work, too, but for such a ditzy cat she's pretty shrewd when it comes to "training" her mom...she would eat around it, or I would put the wet food down for a while then put it away and try to ignore her when she meowed at me...but she knew I would only let her cry for so long before I'd put the wet food back again.

Trouble was, she wanted to do the canned food the way she does her dry food...nibble a little, then go watch birds or play with a toy or sit on my chest...and then go nibble some more. This did not sit well with either me or Chaco, who was getting tired of getting locked in my office every time Maya wanted a nibble. And if I put Maya in a separate room, she would nibble a little and then begin to holler again.

So when she began to really put her nose in her regular food and hunker down like she was going to eat it, I put the canned food away for good. That was three days ago and she's eating, has her energy back, seems to be my old Maya again. She's still a little thin, but I figure she'll gain that back too.

Sooo...thank you for your help and your support! I can't describe how happy I am that Maya is better...but I know you guys understand.

Welll...I've never given my cats canned food, always dry food. They both get Hill's Science Diet, which my vet said was good food. I've never had a vet recommend putting them on anything else, and since I trust my vets...it just never occurred to me.

I always get concerned about Chaco snarfing it all down and Maya never getting any.

Just wanted to add to Lucky's post re cammed food. Canned is actually better for kitties. I refer to my cat's dry food as her "junk" food - sort of like her version of going to MacD, lol I do know it supposedly contains some of the nutrients she needs as a growing kitten BUT it is the canned food which is much better for her and which of course helps her in her water intake - given that cats are not known for going out of their way to drink water. And cats can be prone to uti's so NEED water any way they can get it. Mine are no different and Siamese of course are lactose inrolerant. I can't believe I thought I was helping my cats when I was a teenager and gave them milk. Amazingly, they survived my lack of knowledge!!

But you should introduce her to canned food. While I am not one of those cat food snobs who abhors dry food, I do understand why some cats will eat it - tho it is not always appealing. Mine eat Wellness stuff- and when YY arrived, she was on Hills Science.

Dry food is also less easily digestible than other types of cat food. It is claimed to help tartar but actually regyalr brushing is far better! Some people actually believe amazingly that all they need to do is feed their cat dry food and they control tartar (poor kitties!!!)

As one well known writer asserts: "Although many people rely on dry cat food as a staple for their cats' diets, canned cat food is a must for developing strong bones and muscles, while mitigating many potential conditions caused or contributed to by an all-dry cat food diet. It's true that dry cat food is convenient; it doesn't spoil rapidly, and most cats like the "crunch" of eating dry kibbles. However, dry cat food has its definite "downside." Cats who eat a diet of only dry food are losing out on the extra nutrition they can get with canned cat food. Many commercial dry foods are packed with carbohydrate fillers, usually corn, listed as "corn meal," "ground whole corn," "corn gluten," or even more thinly disguised as "maize," "ground yellow maize" or other misleading names."

In the wild, a cat will eat only a very small quantity of any grain, namely the stomach contents of mice, rabbits, or birds he catches. Why then, should a pampered household cat eat a diet that is loaded with the one food nutrient he really doesn't need? Although french fries and Twinkies might be tasty treats on occasion, what human would consider living on them day in and day out, much less feed them to their children as a regular diet. Why then, would we do less for our cats? "

Hence, even tho mt YY and my fosters have dry food available to them troughout the day, they themselves much prefer canned food and seek it and seem to know it is the junk food category and eat it every now and then. They are actually better than I am - I eat at MacD at least twice a month!!!! lol

I read that Wellness (and there are other barnds too) are fit for human consumption so that is how I judge what I feed YY. She does, however, appear to like Fancy Feast and I give her that rarely. She also like chicken hearts which is her treat food. Once a carnivore...

Last edited by CyberKitten; June 23rd, 2005 at 10:09 PM.
Reason: typos